E-Loop Challenge powered by Recupel

Thank you for your participation. The selected participants have been contacted.

Students from all over the world will be joining us at the World Resources Forum 2019 to design out e-waste!

Electronics and digital deviceshelp us work more efficiently in every area of life. But our appetite for digital products and services is growing at breakneck speed. What feeds this appetite? Innovation of course —which has to keep pace with consumer demand. Unfortunately, theelectronic wasteproduced is also keeping pace with these developments. To keep ourfuturefrom being inundated by a mountain of e-waste, we’ve got to become pioneers and experts to meet this challenge head on.

The E-loop Challenge calls on students from every educational background, all over the world to face this challenge and become experts at preventing, eradicating (and recycling!) e-waste. The competition is a unique opportunity for students to study this issue inside and out, and at the end of the day — to develop and design innovative and sustainable solutions.

On December 1, approximately 1,800 students submitted their candidacy to participate in the Recupel E-Loop Challenge at the World Resources Forum 2019. A tough job for the jury because they had to select 15 students who are allowed to participate in this bootcamp from 24-26 February. All candidates have since been informed about the final selection. More news on the the selected students will be published shortly.

A THREE DAYS BOOTCAMP

Recupel is joining forces with OVAM, Circular Flanders and WRF to invite students to work together in intercultural and interdisciplinary teams. Students will have the opportunity to showcase their talents under unique circumstances.

The three-day bootcamp will take place at the World Resources Forum (February 24 through 27), an event that attracts circular economy-enthusiasts from all corners of society, from professionals, to business leaders, to the public and beyond. Over 800 experts from local and international authorities, environmental companies, sectoral federations, civil society and knowledge institutions will travel from far and wide to attend this event. During the meeting they will exchange ideas, address roadblocks preventing the circular economy from moving forward, and come up with new, sustainable solutions to these problems. The forum gives you immediate access to a worldwide network of experts and expertise as a resource for testing and improving your solutions.

So, why a bootcamp? It’s short and it’s intense, and it could help position you for life in the field of e-waste innovation. By working in teams that transcend sector and culture to design tangible solutions, you have an opportunity to develop your core talents and communication skills in a way you won’t find anywhere else. The Circular E-Loops challenge offers three design challenges :

Design for re-use: how can we design shareable electronics, produce them to last longer and/or make them easier to re-use?

Design for collection: what would a perfect collection system for electronics look like? How would it work?

Design from recycling: how could we recycle collected e-waste to ensure the highest possible value of the upcycled product?

OUTCOME

The challenge’s outcomes should set the stage for a future in which electronics include one or more of the following characteristics (separate or combined):
• have a longer lifecycle and are more intensively used;
• safe and easily collected by the whole community;
• capable of being almost seamlessly and completely recycled/upcycled.

The outcome should provide loads of inspiration and demonstrate the efficiency of interdisciplinary, international thinking and close collaboration between students with a wide variety of nationalities and backgrounds.

Once the World Resources Forum is done, we’ll help interested groups with taking their solution to the next level.